Purvey, after referring to Bede and Alfred as translators of the Bible ‘into Saxon, that was English, either comoun langage of this lond,’ writes thus: ‘Frenshe men, Beemers, and Britons han the bible, and othere bokis of devocioun and of exposicioun, translatid in here modir langage; whi shulden not English men have the same in here modir langage, I can not wite, no but for falsenesse and necgligence of clerkis, either for oure puple is not worthi to have so greet grace and ʓifte of God, in peyne of here olde synnes. God for his merci amende these evele causis, and make our puple to have and kunne and kepe truli holi writ, to liif and deth!’[1] Purvey and his friends stand out prominently among the writers, who settled England's religious dialect; few of the words used in the Wickliffite version have become obsolete within the last five hundred years. The holy torch was to be handed on to a still greater scholar in 1525; for all that, Wickliffe is remarkable as the one Englishman who in the last eleven hundred years has been able to mould Christian thought on the Continent; Cranmer and Wesley have had small influence but on English-speaking men.
Wickliffe had much help from Purvey and Hereford. The latter of these, who translated much of the Old Testament, strove hard to uphold the Southern dialect, and among other things wrote daunster, syngster, after the Old English way. But the other two translators leant to the New Standard, the East Midland, which was making steady inroads on the Southern speech. They write daunseresse, dwelleresse, &c., following Robert
- ↑ Wickliffite Versions (Forshall and Madden), p. 59.
